Game of the Day
Firefall
ESRB Rating: (I would assume) [T] Violence, [M] Online Interactions Vary
Here we have an aesthetically pleasing MMO Shooter. It looks wonderful: cartoony, yet realistic. I really dig MMOs and sci-fi themes, and this is both! I was excited to give it a try because of those reasons alone.
Firefall is created by Red 5 Studios, a recently-surfaced gaming company that has only provided this game so far. They did an excellent job on it, but it could use a few fixings. Overall, this game has every aspect of an MMO you could ask for: transportation methods, classes, abilities, leveling up, and marketplaces. You also get rewarded on playtime per session (with items, materials, and consumable items like grenades) - the intervals increase as each reward is received.
Character creation (in the picture above) allows you to choose from one of five classes (called "battleframes" in the game):
Assault: A generalized and well-rounded battleframe when it comes to offense and defense.
Dreadnaught: A more defensive battleframe still capable of opening a can-o'-kickbutt.
Recon: A medium to long-range battleframe with some support abilities.
Biotech: A battleframe highly capable of healing and support their allies, and chemical warfare.
Engineer: A battlefield support specialist. Can construct turrets and energy barriers, and can resupply.
What makes this game unique is that you can switch between these battleframes as you wish as long as you're at a Battleframe Garage where you can paint your armor, reconstruct your character (hair, sex, voice, skin, etc. which can also be done on the fly), assign skill points, and the likes. This is the first game I played that allowed its players to do this, and it's a major plus. Although you're confined to only one character, the battleframe switching, no matter how cool it may seem, is just like making several characters. I suppose it just cuts down on the clutter of data from the many accounts made for this game.
The default view for this game is 3rd-person but can be switched with a simple click of the mouse wheel. Really, this game looks great either way. Some weapons allow better aiming when in first-person, and others will automatically zoom into first-person when the right-click precision aiming is enabled. The screen layout is simple enough: the mini-map is in the bottom right; your abilities, health, jetpack (yes, a jetpack. No, it's not a suitable form of travel) energy, ammo, and experience gain are centered at the bottom; the chat box is on the bottom-left; the top-left corner provides your name, level of battleframe, battleframe icon, and playtime reward availability as well as VIP options; the top-right corner provides messages from your contacts during missions or between missions; the right side of the screen provides the name of your mission and the next objective goal.
**Something I found very interesting about this game is that every mission message you receive from your contact(s) is voiced-over, and that's hard to find in a lot of MMOs. Kudos to you, Red 5 Studios.
The controls are smooth, and gameplay takes a slightly fast-paced role as you're busy taking on enemies from (sometimes) multiple sides. The use of the jetpack can help escape sticky situations, though the energy depletes quickly - wouldn't want you flying around for eternity and cheating your way around the maps now. But that's okay, because you're given a sci-fi motorcycle! What's cooler than that? Uh... probably some other things, but getting it as early as 1st level in any game is rare if existent outside of this game at all (I've yet to encounter this. Thanks again, Red 5 Studios!) Also, there's an interesting glider option available from some high-elevations in the game. You can travel a good distance before you'll eventually land (or crash into something). It's something new and very fun, but not too exciting - my favorite part is that I can shoot while in the glider mode and rain death from above on the weak enemies below... I'm such a simpleton.
(Vroom Vroom!)
(Glider "tutorial")
As with any MMO, there is a crafting system that I have yet to really figure out within the first three hours of playing this game. It seems as though I would have to grind for materials for quite some time in order to craft anything remotely useful. there are obvious payment options available. It's almost thrown in your face any time you press your Escape key to log out or check your settings, or, or, or. Do you need to pay? Not really, though I'm sure there are those who do to get their gameplay boosted through items and experience. Of course you're given a few armor color options for free, but a lot of the nicer ones require payment of some sort and don't seem worth the money to me. I didn't explore the payment market, though I'm sure there are many things to be viewed:
Another basic feature, as with any MMO, is a quest system. Similar to a few other games I've played (like the Borderlands series and the previously-posted Warframe), there is a sort of mission board that you can pick and choose as you see fit. Most of the missions I've witnessed are kill this, retrieve this, escort that, defend that. Not too much else going on there. While that may get tiresome and/or repetitive, the story for each mission tends to be exciting - even more so because of the voiceovers used for your contacts and employers. I can see that this game would be fun to play with a few friends. It would be easy to make some on this game, because as I've seen there is a very generous community within the walls of this game.
I don't see myself playing this game too much, but I will definitely check in once in a while to spend some time checking out the wonderful scenery - I know I said that graphics aren't my main focus in my previous posts, but this game has some very fascinating concepts behind it that make it pop more uniquely than most games I have yet to play. We'll see how far I can make it into this game before I call shenanigans (if I have to - hopefully I won't).
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